By Kalani E. Gaines
WOODLAND – Denis Bugreyev’s preliminary hearing here this week in Yolo County Superior Court didn’t go well for him—the judge ruled he had to face a trial for felony charges of attempted murder and great bodily injury.
And Judge David Rosenberg refused to set bail, so Bugreyev remains in custody.
Bugreyev was arrested the morning of Sept. 15 for allegedly stabbing his victim in the side of her neck at the Pacific Motel in West Sacramento after asking the victim for a cigarette. He fled the scene on his bike, but was found hiding behind the sign of the Dino Mart gas station nearby.
The stab wounds resulted in the victim being transferred to the ICU of UC Davis Medical Center with substantial blood loss. She was the first to testify.
Deputy District Attorney Preston Schaub and Deputy Public Defender Joseph Gocke struggled during their examination because the victim was overwhelmed, remembering the details of the attack and claiming to be suffering from anxiety and having a hard time breathing as she repeatedly stated, “I just want to go home” and, “Can I please leave?”
Schaub presented two photos of the victim’s stab wounds after being stitched, as well as of a knife with a seven-inch blade and a wooden handle which was used in the attack. He was able to have her identify it as the one that was used as she reenacted the way Bugreyev was holding it right before he attacked her.
Schaub then asked the victim if she was able to remember if Bugreyev had said anything to her right before or during the incident; however, she struggled to answer.
During Gocke’s cross-examination the victim did not understand several of his questions and continued to express her desire to go home.
Gocke asked the victim if she remembered what the officers had said to her while they went to see her at the hospital.
She said she vaguely remembered. “I was so frustrated I just remember talking to them about wanting to go home,” the victim said.
Officer Nathan Ogden of West Sacramento Police Department, who had arrested Bugreyev after having him at gunpoint in the Dino Mart parking lot, was the next to testify. He had also identified the knife Schaub had presented in the photo as the one Bugreyev had when he had arrested him.
Bugreyev was rushing to empty his pockets prior to his arrest, which allowed Ogden to see the knife on the ground with blood still on it.
Further evidence was provided by Detective Cameron, who filtered through the surveillance footage of surrounding businesses in order to compile details of what had happened during the incident. Cameron indicated that in the footage Bugreyev had lunged at the victim but couldn’t tell exactly what happened from the distance.
The final witness to testify was Detective Robert Brazier, who had gone to see the victim in the hospital the day after the incident occurred in order to get a statement from her. Brazier said he was told that when the victim was shown the photo lineup he presented to her she stated, “It was him! It was him! I’m one hundred percent sure.”
Upon submission of the testimonies, Judge Rosenberg declared that there was sufficient evidence to charge Bugreyev with attempted murder (PC § 664) and great bodily injury with no bail.
“I understand these are significant charges,” Gocke argued, “however, under the California constitution it’s only capital offenses that allow a no bail issuance.”
Gocke explained a bail does have to be set for the defendant since the crime is a felony not a capital offense and there is no alternative evidence of the defendant trying to get a witness to not participate in the prosecution as stated in the California constitution.
“We don’t have any evidence of that,” Gocke stated. “I believe that the court should set bail at some amount in this case.”
Bugreyev’s bail amount is not yet determined but his arraignment is set for Nov. 10.
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